Re-established last semester, the Gonda Fund is an award that provides funding for student work centered on social justice issues. The award is named after Tomás Gonda, who left money to the department in 1991 when he passed away. This award has been mostly inactive until this past fall, when we were able to award funding to 11 students.

This semester, the fund is available to up to 15 GD students (grads and undergrads) who are working on projects with social justice themes within any current GD studio class (including DPs, MFA thesis projects, ISPs and CSPs).

Awards are in the $250–500 range, depending on the number of applicants. If more than 15 qualified applications are received, students will be prioritized according to time remaining in our program (i.e., seniors/thesis students will be funded first, and then juniors/pre-thesis, and then sophomores/first-year students).

You may apply for this semester’s funding immediately. To apply, please gather:

1. 5–10 images of the work being submitted (can be work-in-progress, process, renderings, proposal, research, etc), from any Spring 2022 GD class
2. a written project description (1–2 paragraphs, or more)
3. a written statement about how/why the project falls under the umbrella of social justice, and why this is important to you (1–2 paragraphs, or more)

Submit here by May 9, 2022.

Projects will be reviewed by RISD GD faculty and funding will be awarded before the end of the semester